We teach English literature in South Africa, to third- or fourth-language English speakers. Increasingly dissatisfied with the effectiveness of our pedagogy under conditions of massification, we seek to agitate propositions about our students' reading and what these propositions means for our pedagogy. Drawing on narrative theory we analyse our…

This article reports on the partial results of a longitudinal study I conducted to investigate the first-year students' experiences in dealing with the challenges they face while attaining the academic literacy skills required of them and constructing their academic identities at an American university in the UAE. While the challenges encountered…

In today's differentiated classroom, each individual student receives from their teacher student-centered instruction and customized assignments to reflect their skills and knowledge. Teachers differentiate their assignments so each of their students may access the Common Core State Standards, interact with complex nonfiction texts, integrate…

Basic writing and reading students are scared. More than the unfamiliar places, faces, new methods and serious consequences of it all, they are afraid of words. Even if they successfully complete remediation, move on to English 101 and advance to upper courses in other disciplines, our students often face monstrous texts, which they have precious…

The purpose of this study was to provide resources for families such that they would be well equipped to provide academic support at home; hence examining the impact of providing said resources and the subsequent impact on a first grade child's reading development. In this study, the researcher took a group of twenty students and divided them into…

The authors maintain that developing an awareness of the skills and tasks involved in proficient reading is necessary in the middle grades and that success with these skills and tasks develops through peer interaction and meaningful activity, not through teacher-dominated discussion. To that end, in this column, the authors introduce the…

When proficient middle school readers enter high school, it is generally expected that they can successfully comprehend high school text. If any literacy instruction is provided in high school, it is generally limited to students with a history of struggling with reading. Is it a reasonable expectation that successful middle school readers will be…

A study examined students' metacognitive response to ambiguous literacy tasks to determine the relationship between that response and academic achievement. Subjects were 11 students chosen from a fifth-grade classroom in a small, urban school serving a predominantly black, middle class neighborhood. Two literacy tasks were identified as ambiguous:…